🗞️ Why in News Beyond the deep dives on the US sanctions law on Russian oil buyers and the RTI exemption Tamil Nadu withdrew, the 28 September 2026 roundup covers a Supreme Court ruling on railway accident compensation without a ticket, the India-Canada push to finish a trade agreement, heavy rain in Uttar Pradesh from a depression meeting a western disturbance, India’s best finish at WorldSkills, tax department reminders on foreign assets, Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary and World Rabies Day.
Supreme Court: No Ticket Is No Bar to Railway Accident Compensation
In Sukhabhai Nanjibhai Makwana v. Union of India (2026 INSC 1056), a Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and A.S. Chandurkar held on 25 September 2026 that the absence of a recovered ticket cannot defeat a compensation claim when other evidence shows the victim was a bona fide passenger. It restored an award of Rs 8 lakh that the Railway Claims Tribunal had made on 17 June 2022 (the background to the appeal) to the parents of a man who fell from the general compartment of a moving train in Gujarat on 27 September 2017 and died on 31 October 2017. The Gujarat High Court had set the award aside because no ticket was found.
The Court’s reasoning: the father’s statement on oath that his son bought a ticket discharged the claimants’ initial burden, which then shifted to the Railways; the victim was in hospital for over a month, so the ticket was unlikely to be preserved; the Railways’ witnesses did not check his pockets; and an inquiry report prepared seven months later, after the claim was filed, could not be used against the family. Compensation was ordered within 30 days.
The law. Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989 makes the Railways liable to compensate for death or injury in an “untoward incident”, whether or not there was any wrongful act, neglect or default on its part: a no-fault (strict) liability. Section 123(c) defines untoward incidents to include the accidental falling of a passenger from a train, as well as terrorist acts, robbery and violent attacks. Claims go to the Railway Claims Tribunal, set up under the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987. In Union of India v. Rina Devi (9 May 2018) the Supreme Court held that the mere absence of a ticket does not rule out a claim: the claimant’s affidavit shifts the burden to the Railways.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- Section 124A, Railways Act, 1989: compensation for untoward incidents without proof of fault (strict liability).
- Section 123(c): untoward incidents include accidental falling from a passenger train.
- Forum: Railway Claims Tribunal (Act of 1987); Rina Devi (2018) settled the burden of proof on tickets.
- Trap: a collision or derailment is an “accident” under Section 124; a fall from a train is an “untoward incident” under Section 124A.
India and Canada Push to Conclude a Trade Agreement
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on 26 September 2026, saying the two sides were preparing “to take the relationship to a higher level”. The next round of negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is due to begin on 5 October, and Prime Minister Mark Carney said Prime Minister Modi was expected to visit Canada around December, when both sides hope to sign it. The agreement aims to take bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2030. In her address to the General Debate, Anand said Canada is diversifying its trade, including “renewed partnerships with large economies like India and China”.
Background. Ties collapsed in 2023 after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged a link between Indian government agents and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a charge India rejected; diplomats were expelled on both sides. After Mark Carney became Prime Minister in March 2025, high commissioners were restored, and CEPA talks were formally launched during Carney’s visit to New Delhi (see our 2 March 2026 roundup). A Modi visit in December would be his first bilateral visit to Canada since 2015.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- India-Canada CEPA: negotiations launched March 2026; target trade USD 50 billion by 2030; next round from 5 October 2026.
- Canada’s PM Mark Carney (since March 2025); Foreign Minister Anita Anand.
- India’s other agreements: CEPA with the UAE (2022), ECTA with Australia (2022), CECPA with Mauritius (2021).
- Trap: the 2022 India-Australia ECTA was designed as an interim agreement, to be followed by a comprehensive CECA.
Why Uttar Pradesh Got Extreme Rain in Late September
Heavy rain lashed Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Bareilly and other parts of Uttar Pradesh from 25 to 27 September 2026. The State received 45.1 mm in the 24 hours ending 27 September, against a normal of 1.8 mm, and 56 of its 75 districts recorded excess rain, according to official figures reported by The Indian Express. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed it to the likely interaction of two systems:
| System | What it is | Its role |
|---|---|---|
| Deep depression | A tropical low-pressure system that formed over the Bay of Bengal, crossed the north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coast and moved inland over Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh | Brought monsoon moisture far inland; weakened into a well-marked low on 27 September |
| Western disturbance (WD) | An extra-tropical low-pressure system from beyond Afghanistan and Iran that picks up moisture from the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian and Arabian Seas | Lay as an upper-air trough over north-west India; its interaction with the depression intensified the rain, with the IMD warning of isolated extremely heavy falls in the central Terai belt |
This came as the southwest monsoon was withdrawing from north-west India.
IMD classification of low-pressure systems (sustained wind speed).
| Category | Knots | km/h |
|---|---|---|
| Low-pressure area | below 17 | below 31 |
| Depression | 17 to 27 | 31 to 49 |
| Deep depression | 28 to 33 | 50 to 61 |
| Cyclonic storm | 34 to 47 | 62 to 88 |
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- Western disturbances are extra-tropical systems carried east by the subtropical westerly jet stream; they bring most of north India’s winter rain and Himalayan snow.
- A deep depression has sustained winds of 28 to 33 knots; a cyclonic storm begins at 34 knots.
- Trap: a WD is extra-tropical (from mid-latitudes); a monsoon depression is tropical, formed over the Bay of Bengal.
India’s Best Finish at WorldSkills: 10th at Shanghai 2026
India finished 10th at the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, China, which closed on 27 September 2026, winning 6 silver medals and 20 Medallions for Excellence. At WorldSkills Lyon 2024, India was 13th, with four bronze medals and 12 Medallions for Excellence. India sent its largest-ever contingent of 70 competitors in 63 skills; the event (22-27 September) drew over 1,400 competitors from about 70 countries and regions. The silver medallists were Smriti Nambiar (Bakery, also named India’s Best of Nation), Mohammed Salam (Dental Prosthetics), Kovid Ajay Gangrade (Digital Interactive Media Design), Parth Vohra (Industrial Design Technology), Mehrunissa Begum (Logistics and Freight Forwarding) and Saniya Joshi (Retail Sales). India’s participation is led by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- 48th WorldSkills Competition: Shanghai, 22-27 September 2026; India 10th (6 silver, 20 Medallions for Excellence).
- Previous edition: Lyon 2024, India 13th.
- Trap: WorldSkills is a vocational skills competition held every two years; it is not an academic Olympiad.
Income Tax Department Nudges Taxpayers on Foreign Assets
The Income Tax Department has begun e-mailing taxpayers whose records show overseas assets (bank accounts, shares, property) that may be unreported, urging them to check the Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the e-filing portal and, where needed, use the Foreign Asset of Small Taxpayers-Disclosure Scheme (FAST-DS), 2026, open until 31 December 2026, The Indian Express reported on 28 September. For background, the scheme has been in force since 16 August 2026 (see our 15 August report), has two windows: undisclosed foreign assets or income up to Rs 1 crore at 30 per cent tax plus 30 per cent in lieu of penalty; and assets up to Rs 5 crore that were already taxed or acquired while non-resident but left out of returns, for a flat Rs 1 lakh fee. Recipients include students and returning professionals with dormant accounts or small stock holdings, some of whom say the fee is steep.
Why it matters. This is the “nudge” model of compliance: data the department already holds, much of it received under automatic exchange of financial account information with other countries, is shown to taxpayers before any penalty proceedings under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- FAST-DS, 2026: in force 16 August 2026, declarations until 31 December 2026.
- Two categories: up to Rs 1 crore (30% tax + 30%); up to Rs 5 crore already-taxed or non-resident-period assets (Rs 1 lakh fee).
- Trap: the AIS is a taxpayer’s information statement on the e-filing portal; it is not a return.
Bhagat Singh: Birth Anniversary
Bhagat Singh was born on 28 September 1907 at Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab (now in Pakistan). A founder of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (1926) and a leader of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), reorganised at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, in 1928, he wrote the essay “Why I Am an Atheist” (1930) in jail.
The Assembly bomb and a Speaker’s stand. On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two non-lethal bombs and leaflets from the visitors’ gallery of the Central Legislative Assembly as it moved to enact the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill; they shouted “Inquilab Zindabad” and courted arrest. Their leaflet opened with a line from the French anarchist Auguste Vaillant: “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.” In the chair was Vithalbhai Patel, elder brother of Vallabhbhai Patel and, from 24 August 1925, the first Indian elected President of the Assembly (some accounts give 22 August 1925). When the government then sought to take over the Assembly’s security, he refused, keeping the watch and ward of the legislature under its presiding officer, a practice that lasted in Parliament until the CISF took over its security in 2024.
Sentenced to transportation for life in the Assembly case on 12 June 1929, Bhagat Singh was separately tried for the 1928 killing of police officer John Saunders in Lahore (the Lahore Conspiracy Case) and hanged at Lahore with Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23 March 1931, now observed as Shaheed Diwas. At the Karachi session of the Congress in March 1931, presided over by Vallabhbhai Patel, the Congress paid tribute to his courage.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- Born 28 September 1907, Banga (Lyallpur); hanged 23 March 1931, Lahore, with Rajguru and Sukhdev.
- Assembly bomb: 8 April 1929, with B.K. Dutt, against the Public Safety and Trade Disputes Bills.
- Vithalbhai Patel: first Indian elected President of the Central Legislative Assembly, 24 August 1925.
- Trap: he was hanged in the Saunders (Lahore Conspiracy) case, not for the Assembly bomb, which carried a life sentence.
World Rabies Day
28 September is World Rabies Day, the death anniversary of Louis Pasteur (died 1895), who developed the first rabies vaccine in 1885. Rabies is a viral disease (a lyssavirus) that is almost always fatal once symptoms appear but is preventable through prompt post-exposure prophylaxis: wound washing, vaccination and, for severe exposures, rabies immunoglobulin. Dogs cause most human cases. India’s National Action Plan for Dog Mediated Rabies Elimination (NAPRE), launched in 2021 (on 28 September 2021), is aligned with the global target of zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030, and vaccinating dogs is central to it because it breaks transmission at the source.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
- World Rabies Day: 28 September (Louis Pasteur’s death anniversary).
- NAPRE (2021): eliminate dog-mediated rabies deaths by 2030; a One Health plan of the health and animal husbandry ministries.
- Trap: rabies is caused by a virus, not a bacterium; antibiotics do not treat it.
📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia
Prelims, statement-ready facts:
- Railways Act, 1989, Section 124A: no-fault compensation for untoward incidents; Rina Devi (2018) on tickets.
- India-Canada CEPA: talks launched March 2026; next round from 5 October 2026.
- Western disturbances: extra-tropical, carried by the subtropical westerly jet; deep depression 28-33 knots.
- WorldSkills 2026 (Shanghai): India 10th, 6 silver medals.
- FAST-DS: declarations until 31 December 2026.
- Bhagat Singh: born 28 September 1907; Assembly bomb 8 April 1929; Vithalbhai Patel presiding.
Prelims, the traps:
- A fall from a train is an untoward incident (Section 124A), not an accident (Section 124).
- WD is extra-tropical; a monsoon depression is tropical.
- Bhagat Singh was executed in the Saunders case, not the Assembly bomb case.
Mains, arguments and keywords:
- Beneficial legislation read in favour of victims; trade diversification after US tariffs; compound extreme-rain events; skilling and global standards; nudge-based tax compliance.
- Keywords: strict liability, burden of proof, CEPA, extra-tropical, Medallion for Excellence, AIS.
Interview, be ready for:
- “Should the Railways pay when no ticket is found?” Yes, within limits: it is welfare legislation with no-fault liability, and the burden shifts to the Railways once the claimant gives credible evidence.
Sources: The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Indian Express, Explained, PIB, The Indian Express, FAST-DS, The Indian Express, Explained History, Vithalbhai Patel, Karachi session, 1931
Source: Current Affairs Today, September 28, 2026, Complete News Roundup — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs
